College football‘s early signing period for the class of 2022 began on Wednesday morning, meaning recruits could finally put pen to paper on their letters of intent after days, weeks, months, or years of being verbally committed to a program. There’s always going to be some sort of drama as a result of this, but according to reports, perhaps the biggest stunner in the history of recruiting has happened.
Travis Hunter, the No. 1 player in the class of 2022 and someone Andrew Irvins of 247Sports describes as “a generational type of talent” at cornerback, verbally committed to Florida State in March of 2020. He’s stayed committed throughout the process, but on Wednesday, Steve Wiltfong of 247 reported that there was serious chatter about a flip. It wasn’t going to be Georgia, the presumed landing spot if the Peach State native decided to head elsewhere, but instead, it would be FCS program Jackson State, an HBCU coached by Deion Sanders.
🚨 JUST IN! 🚨
A source is telling our @SWiltfong247 that Jackson State and Deion Sanders have a good chance at landing the No. 1 player in the country Travis Hunter 👀 pic.twitter.com/FPC27Joyc1
— 247Sports (@247Sports) December 15, 2021
The report was later confirmed by Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, and when Hunter announced his commitment after noon, he indeed decided he’d head to Jackson State.
A source said that FSU has been informed that Hunter is heading to Jackson State. https://t.co/5xEoganzQd
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 15, 2021
https://twitter.com/TravisHunterJr/status/1471166038834356237
A five-star prospect player passing on playing for a Power 5 program is incredibly rare, but it’s not totally unheard of — Ed Oliver famously committed to Houston out of high school, for example. But a player of Hunter’s caliber picking an FCS school and an HBCU is something that just does not happen. But now, Hunter is doing something unprecedented, and as a result, Sanders took a potential NFL talent from his old school and is bringing him to his new one.
